Fallen childcare ex-mogul 'homeless', broke

Lucy Battersby and Ben Butler

EDDY Groves once owned property across three continents, but now the bankrupt childcare czar claims he is homeless – although he expects to find a permanent address ‘‘in the next two weeks’’.

In a statement of his financial affairs provided to Insolvency Trustee Services Australia, the former ABC Learning chief executive lists debts of $21.6 million.

The fallen multimillionaire claims to have no cash, no vehicles, no land and just $38.79 in the bank, held in two accounts at NAB’s Robina branch, in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Long gone are an opulent $2.5 million Nevada property, a $106,250 share of an investment unit in Canadian ski resort Whistler and a $855,000 house in Chantilly, north of Paris.

Also gone are four Harley Davidsons, sold to Brisbane’s Heavy Duty Motorcycles for $77,500, a 2005 Mercedes SL6, sold to wife Viryan Collins Rubie for $220,000 in 2010, and a Honda CRV, sold through carsales.com.au in 2011 for $12,000.

However, the statement reveals he still holds life insurance and trauma policies worth $18 million issued by ANZ subsidiary OnePath while his self-managed Butterfly superannuation fund holds $213,916 – although he has not made a contribution for five years.

There is also $10,000 worth of sporting memorabilia, but it is in the possession of ex-wife Le Neve, who was a co-founder of the ABC Learning childcare business.

He gives as his last address a beachfront property in the Gold Coast, which property records show is owned by his current wife.

The statement, filed on Monday, shows that less than a year after the spectacular 2008 collapse of the ABC Learning group in 2008, Westpac loaned Mr Groves at least $5 million, including an unspecified sum for a Cessna Citation jet.

In addition, Mr Groves owes Westpac $209,000 on four credit cards and owes his family and friends, including brother-in-law Frank Zullo, more than $1.5 million. He also claims to owe Iconic Properties, a company of which he was a director until late 2009, $8.7 million.

Transactions with related parties are likely to be investigated by Mr Groves’s trustees in bankruptcy, PPB Advisory partners Mark Robinson and Andrew Scott.

While it is well known that Mr Groves got his start as a milkman, the statement shows he remained a director of five milk distribution businesses up until a year ago. Most have since been deregistered.

And he remained a director of NBL Enterprises and NBL Management until November 2008, five months after his basketball team the Brisbane Bullets ceased operating.

Mr Groves was bankrupted by the Commonwealth Bank a fortnight ago over a $7.9 million loan used to buy the Adelaide Dome, now known as the Adelaide Arena, in 2008.

He was obliged under bankruptcy law to file the statement within 14 days of the Federal Court order sequestering his estate.

Mr Groves estimates the Adelaide venue could now sell for between $3.5 million and $7.5 million.

He also discloses he invested $14 million in investment schemes run by failed forestry group Great Southern, which he now estimates have halved in value.